Chapter 32 It was Pei who came out to lead them into the house…
The person who came out to lead them into the house was an old attendant of Old Master Pei. Upon entering the old house, they found it to be larger than they had imagined, probably enough to house several families and their maids and servants. There were no lights anywhere, and the old attendant relied entirely on the lantern in his hand to light their way.
Old Master Pei lived in a room at the back. The back of the room was originally a side room where two servants lived, but he had converted it into a large study. The old attendant led them to the study to see Old Master Pei.
As soon as Wei Yin entered the study, the first thing he saw was a garden landscape painting that covered almost an entire wall. It depicted tall buildings and winding corridors, small bridges and flowing water, and many flower groves. There were also several elegantly dressed men and women sitting and chatting in various parts of the painting.
Lu Hun's gaze, hidden beneath his cloak and hood, was also momentarily drawn to the enormous painting.
Although it was He Wenqing's first time visiting Elder Pei's study, he only glanced at it, not daring to look too closely for fear of being presumptuous.
Hearing the noise, Elder Pei put down his pen and turned around: "Wenqing is here."
He Wenqing quickly stepped forward to greet him, saying, "I was late returning home today because I was sending my father off to his funeral. I will be staying here with you for the night."
"What's the big deal?" Old Master Pei said nonchalantly. "My house is very large. You can stay as long as you want. It's just that I don't have many servants here."
"I wouldn't dare disturb the teacher," He Wenqing replied immediately.
"Have you had dinner yet?" Old Pei asked.
"Yin'er and the others have used it, but I was in a hurry today and didn't have time to use it."
"Then why don't you stay and have a meal with me?" Old Master Pei looked at Wei Yin and Lu Hun and said, "This house has been uninhabited for a long time, and the living quarters need to be properly cleaned before anyone can live here. Would you like to sit down and eat together now, or would you like to go to the warm hall outside for tea and wait?"
Wei Yin had eaten enough for dinner and immediately shook her head: "I won't disturb Elder Pei and my husband's reunion. Let's go to the warm hall with my cousin first."
Old Pei then had someone bring him food.
He Wenqing frowned involuntarily as he watched Wei Yin and Lu Hun leave.
Seeing him in a daze, Elder Pei asked, "Wenqing, what's wrong?"
He Wenqing snapped back to reality: "It's alright, teacher. I'll pour you some wine."
The warm hall was located not far from Elder Pei's residence, and it was separated from the garden behind it. Qinggeng Mountain was much colder at night. A charcoal fire had already been lit in the warm hall. The maid placed a pot of hot tea and several plates of fruit on the table and then turned and left.
Lu Hun didn't sit down; instead, he stood by the window, opened it, and looked outside.
It was pitch black outside, and Wei Yin didn't know what he could see, so she picked up a cup of tea and brought it to her lips.
Just then, Wei Yin suddenly heard a lively commotion outside, with many people having a banquet. At first, she thought it was the noise from Pei Lao and He Wenqing eating and drinking, but then she noticed that the noise was coming from another direction.
"What's going on? Is someone nearby having a feast?"
Lu Hun had obviously heard her too. He glanced at her before saying, word by word, "At the foot of Qinggeng Mountain, only Elder Pei lives alone. There are no other families there."
Wei Yin was surprised. Even though she had already experienced several strange things, she couldn't help but feel her heart race.
"What exactly happened? Where did that noise come from?"
Lu Hun thought for a moment and said, "You sit inside first, I'll go out and take a look."
"Me alone?" Wei Yin immediately shook her head.
“You have a safety talisman, so they won’t dare to do anything to you for a while,” Lu Hun said worriedly. “This house is unusual. I don’t know what might be outside. You stay here for now, I’ll be back soon.”
Wei Yin hesitated for a moment, but finally nodded.
After Lu Hun left, Wei Yin was alone in the warm hall, anxiously clutching the peace charm. She didn't dare to look outside the hall, afraid of seeing something she shouldn't.
Is it true that Chen Xuanhua said this house is unclean?
She couldn't help but glance towards the doorway.
But with just one glance, Wei Yin noticed a slender figure standing not far from the door, seemingly wearing a large black cloak. It looked like Lu Hun.
Lu Hun stood there motionless, only looking up at the horizon, seemingly doing nothing.
Didn't he want to go out and take a look?
Why aren't you going?
Did you discover something?
Wei Yin hesitated for a moment, but in the end, she got up and walked over.
When she came out of the warm hall, she found that Lu Hun had left and was now looking around in the garden next to the warm hall.
Wei Yin saw it clearly this time; it was him.
He quickly went over.
Startled by the footsteps, Lu Hun turned around and drew his Po Jun sword with a whoosh.
However, upon seeing that it was her, he slowly put the Broken Army away again.
Why did you come out?
"I saw you looking at the horizon from the doorway and thought something was wrong, so I came out to check on you," Wei Yin explained.
Upon hearing her words, Lu Hun frowned deeply. "I noticed the commotion in the garden as soon as I came out, so I came straight here. How did you see me at the entrance of the main hall?"
Wei Yin was completely dumbfounded. Who was that figure she had just seen?
Lu Hun quickly realized: "It seems to be something from this old house."
Wei Yin felt a chill run down her spine.
“If it can transform into my likeness,” Lu Hun said solemnly, “it will probably need to transform into Xi. Only those above Xi level can begin to transform.”
Wei Yin took a deep breath and quickly asked, "Lu Hun, what kind of ghost are you now? If you really encounter Xi, how confident are you?"
"Ten out of ten." Lu Hun considered it seriously before saying, "Extremely ten out of ten."
Wei Yin glared at him for a while, and after a long pause, she had no choice but to change the subject, "What did you see just now?"
Lu Hun pointed to the depths of the garden and said to her, "Look."
Deeper into the garden, the lights were on, and the faint sounds of many people drinking and eating could be heard, creating a lively atmosphere. But it was definitely not Elder Pei and He Wenqing eating and drinking there.
Just then, several maids carrying wine and dishes came out from beside them and said with a smile, "Today is the eldest young master's wedding. The young master and young lady are all waiting in the garden for wine. Why aren't you delivering the wine? What are you doing standing here?"
Wei Yin was so shocked that she couldn't speak when she saw the maid who had suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
Lu Hun shielded her behind him, his large cloak blocking the maids' view. He paused for a moment before asking, "Who is the eldest young master?"
"Don't you know the eldest young master?" the maid laughed. "Of course it's our Wen family's eldest young master, Wenxuan. I think you've all secretly drunk yourselves into a stupor today!"
Another maid stepped forward and said, "Stop talking, they're waiting for us to go in and bring them wine and food."
Immediately, a maid handed Lu Hun two jugs of wine.
As if afraid that he and Wei Yin would slack off again, she snorted, "You two go first, don't even think about slacking off to drink."
Lu Hun calmly watched this scene, then looked down at Wei Yin and said, "We can't leave now."
Wei Yin frowned: "They just mentioned the Wen family. I heard Chen Xuanhua say that the original family that lived in this old house was surnamed Wen."
Lu Hun lowered his eyes: "Let's go take a look first."
There was no other way. Wei Yin took another pot of wine from Lu Hun, and the two of them followed the maids to the depths of the garden.
Deep within the garden, there was a lakeside pavilion. Inside the pavilion, a large table was set up, and several young men and women were seated there. Their clothes and jewelry were all extremely exquisite and elegant.
When Wei Yin and Lu Hun went up to deliver the wine, they didn't seem to care and kept chatting and laughing.
The scene before him reminded Wei Yin of the garden landscape painting hanging on the wall of Pei Lao's study.
After delivering the wine, Wei Yin and Lu Hun stood in the corner.
Just then, she overheard two girls whispering to each other in the seats next to her.
"I didn't see my cousin Jin Nian come over tonight."
"Alas, today is my elder brother's wedding day. I'm afraid my cousin Jin Nian must be feeling very sad."
"I don't know what Grandfather is thinking! He's forcing my eldest brother to marry this new sister-in-law! It's obvious that my eldest brother and my cousin Jin Nian both have feelings for each other..."
"That's right. I heard that this new sister-in-law is my grandfather's teacher's youngest daughter. She was his only daughter, but she suffered brain damage from a fever when she was young and became mentally challenged. Now she is almost thirty years old and still can't get married. My grandfather saw that my teacher was so old and still worried about his daughter every day. Out of gratitude to my teacher, he disregarded my eldest brother's wishes and forced him to marry her. My eldest brother is only seventeen years old."
"Yes, Grandfather also said that it doesn't matter if the child is stupid. The new sister-in-law comes from a scholarly family. As long as the child she gives birth to isn't stupid, that's fine. Even if the child isn't good, the eldest brother can take a few more concubines. The only thing is that we can't let our teacher down."
"I heard," the girl who spoke lowered her voice to avoid being overheard, "that Grandfather was afraid that my eldest brother would not be willing to consummate the marriage tonight and would dislike his new sister-in-law, so he sent his personal nanny Wang and nanny Li to my eldest brother's room to watch over him until he and his new sister-in-law consummated their marriage."
"Good heavens, what has happened?" exclaimed another girl who overheard this. "How could Grandfather do such a thing?"
“Grandfather has always been like this. He is the head of the family and doesn’t care what we think. My mother told me that my aunt and her scholar cousin were a couple. My grandmother originally planned to marry my aunt to that scholar cousin, but later, my grandfather took a fancy to one of his students. That student was almost old enough to be my aunt’s father, but my grandfather still thought that the student was of noble character and talented. So he ignored my grandmother’s objections and insisted on marrying my aunt to him. As a result, the student died of illness in less than a year. Her mother-in-law said that my aunt had cursed her son to death, which made my aunt and her cousin Jin Nian suffer a lot of anger in her husband’s family. My grandfather turned a blind eye to this and blamed my aunt for her bad luck, saying that she had cursed such a good husband to death.”
Wei Yin, standing to the side, was utterly dumbfounded.
Footsteps could be heard outside the pavilion.
Wei Yin looked up and soon saw a group of maids and servants carrying lanterns, surrounding a tall, handsome young man in a red robe as he entered the pavilion.
The two girls who had been speaking just now called out "Big Brother" and immediately fell silent.
Wei Yin then realized that the young man dressed in wedding attire was none other than their elder brother, Wen Xuan.
From a distance, he was very handsome, with a face that could almost be described as stunningly beautiful; he was a very good-looking young man.
However, the boy's eyebrows and eyes were lowered, showing no joy. He was thin and pale, and his shoulders seemed weak, as if he had no soul and had been carried step by step from behind.
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